Times Cryptic 26888

57 comments on “Times Cryptic 26888”

1. ….until I came to ‘toreador’, where I got thoroughly stuck for nearly ten minutes, ending with a time of 32 minutes. There were some very good clues, particularly the Che EPs and the royal pair making a stop in Arkansas. The two alternate spellings for ‘lodestar’ and ‘artifact’ didn’t really bother me, although technically speaking ‘artifact’ and ‘artefact’ have two different meanings, and the setter has attached the wrong one to the spelling he has chosen.

   I congratulate my buddy jackkt on making it to ten years. His first blog was indeed puzzle 23766, November 23 2007. I don’t think I had begun commenting on the site yet, although I became a blogger myself less than 18 months later. By then, we had a much larger audience.

   1. Merriam-Webster says “artefact” is simply the “Chiefly British spelling” of “artifact,” and I’ve never heard that there is a difference between the two. Anyway, I had the spelling with an “e,” not because this is a British puzzle (boy, is it ever… haha) but because I’ve always preferred it, for some (or no) reason.
   2. Many thanks for the congrats.

      I realise now I hadn’t notice that but for it being a reversed hidden answer, there could have been room for confusion over the spelling at 15dn and I’m not sure that I ever knew of ‘artifact’.

      According to all the usual treeware sources, it’s just an alternative to ARTEFACT and it’s listed second. The Oxfords go so far as to say ‘artifact’ is the US spelling. None of them differentiates between the meanings of the alternatives although I note on-line there is some suggestion of this.

      1. Oh, yeah, I forgot for a moment that this was all spelled out in the clue, so my preference had nothing to do with the spelling I “chose.”
         And let me join the rising chorus: Congratulations, Jack!
2. I too was stuck on TOREADOR at the end, unsure of quite what I was looking for. Got there in the end anyway, unlike yesterday when I hit submit before I realized I hadn’t filled in a couple of clues. Not sure how long I took since I fell asleep in the middle. It took some time to see CHEEPS too, since I was trying to justify CHIRPS until I got the checker that ruled that out.
3. I’d never heard of slack, so I took a lot of time before settling on COAL; now if I’d only taken a little time to work out the wordplay of FRESHEST, I wouldn’t have flung in ‘brashest’. My understanding is that one shouldn’t bet on the cow being unconscious before the knives come into play; I could have done without this clue. But I did like TOREADOR and CHEEPS.
   Mazel tov, Jack, and thanks for all the wonderfully lucid blogs. I think I started lurking on TftT in ’07; I hope to be able to continue seeing them for some time to come.

   Edited at 2017-11-21 03:15 am (UTC)

   1. Thanks for your kind comments, Kevin.

      I think it was first thinking of ‘brashest’ at 8dn that caused me to miss my target on my anniversary puzzle. The definition seemed close enough, and to me it didn’t seem beyond the bounds of possibility that there might be a slang term ‘to brat’ meaning ‘to cause distress’. But fortunately I never quite got round to bunging it in and moving on, and eventually realised the obviously correct alternative.

      1. I also had BRASHEST for too long and had CHEAPS for a while as well. I liked the feel of this crossword. Thanks to all.
   2. Certainly not in a Halal establishment! ( reply to Kevin )

      Edited at 2017-11-21 10:46 am (UTC)

4. Congratulations Jack! Is this an all-comers record? Up there with Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Jack Brabham. 500 and bend the knee!

   As for today this was for me easy, for a change and I strolled home in 28 mins.

   FOI 21dn DINNER LOI 18dn HYPERION

   COD 7dn COAL (One ton of nutty slack was my Dad’s order from the coal-merchant)

   WOD 26ac CHOW MEIN (invented in America!)

5. My LOI was JACK (nice that this is in our Jack’s anniversary puzzle!), because I had LODESTAR, as I figured “lodes” could be “lots” as well as “loads” could, and I much prefer the former spelling. I may have never looked before at the derivation of the word, from Middle English: « lode is an archaic noun from the verb lithe (“to go, journey”), related to lead. Other Middle English spellings include: 14th century loode sterre, lood-sterre, lade-sterne; and 15th century lode sterre.» (Wikipedia) But it seems “lode” in the sense of a vein of ore (and hence a “rich source”) isn’t unelated to that, as it derives from “Old English lād ‘way, course,’ variant of load.”
   I find that “and” in the clue to RAINING is extraneous and misleading. It slowed me down a little. It implies that the answer is a word defined by “working out” that you get by removing the “top” of a word for “showering,” when it’s the other way around.
   I was grateful for remembering that there is something called “slack” COAL. Must have learned that here sometime.

   Edited at 2017-11-21 05:57 am (UTC)

   1. I wondered about ‘and’ in 5dn and nearly said something in the blog, but it gives the surface reading a sense which it would otherwise be lacking so I concluded it was reasonable enough. Of course it’s within a setter’s remit to mislead and I didn’t feel the extra word crossed the boundary into unfairness territory. In earlier blogging days I would not have omitted pointing out the DBE here.
   2. For what it’s worth, I agree with you on 5dn. This is a clue for the word TRAINING. The checking letters tell you to put in RAINING so I can’t get too exercised about it but it’s not ideal.
6. Congrats on the anniversary!

   Count me as another who foundered on “brashest”; I wondered about it at the time, but sadly forgot to go and have another think about it in the remaining four minutes of my hour once I’d filled in the rest.

   At least I know I’m learning: I distinctly remember bunging in a misspelled “abbatoir” in one of my first attempts at solving here, which is why I managed to get it right today…

7. 35 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana.
   Surely the ‘Old timer Jack’ is a deliberate nod to the maestro?
   Not keen on a mention of Abattoirs over breakfast.
   Mostly I liked: Eating apples, Etcher, Cheeps (COD) and Hyperion.
   Toreador was the late LOI.
   Thanks helpful setter and congratulations Jack.
8. 17:34 … offbeat in places, and some of it not really my thing. I’m not wild about the TOREADOR definition and I’m afraid I must have had a sense of humour failure over 9a. SAFARI did get a smile, though. I also had ‘brashest’ for 8d but it never sat right and I managed not to hit the Submit button until I’d rethunk.

   Congratulations, jackkt, and thanks for all your work helping to make this site so successful. Definitely a TfTT Hall of Famer.

9. 
   Oops… not only did I have a space at HYPERION (forgotten rather than unknown, I fear), but also fell into the ‘brashest’ trap.

   Also had ‘finding fault’ for some time which held up many of the downs.

   Well done Jack for your long service. I for one am extremely grateful for all the time and effort you (and indeed all the bloggers) put into your commitment to this site.

10. Many congratulations jack, and thanks again for your encouragement when I blogged the QC for a few months. 14’12” today, fortunately stopping to think on FRESHEST, wondered if ‘brat’ was an Americanism for distress. Not sure about the definition for TOREADOR. Also wondered if the ‘ripped off end of ornament’ may also be an allusion to the taking of ears and tail as souvenirs? – which coming after ABATTOIR is indeed not nice. Thanks jack and setter.
11. 10:30. No real problems today other than TOREADOR, which held me up for quite a while at the end and took me over the ten-minute mark. ARTEFACT is the kind of word I am always afraid of misspelling, so I was grateful for the wordplay.
    Congratulations on your ten-year anniversary, jackkt, and many thanks for all the blogs. Here’s to another ten years.
12. I note this one has rather divided the house. Perhaps we don’t see too many definitions of this sort now but they were common enough in the past and our former and much-respected blogger, Uncle Yap (who still pops in here occasionally), had a name for them – ‘tichy’ (tongue-in-cheek type) sometimes referred to as “titchy” when others adopted it. “Perhaps bully boy” for TOREADOR seems fine to me and added a bit of levity, although I note we had three* references to killing cattle today which seems a bit excessive for a single puzzle.

    *9ac, 20ac & the ‘hot beef’ at 26ac

    Edited at 2017-11-21 10:37 am (UTC)

    1. I didn’t comment beyond saying that it held me up but as we seem to be opining on it I wasn’t keen on this definition. I’m all for a bit of levity and tongues in cheeks, but the thing still has to make sense, and to me this definition doesn’t.
    2. I did not have a problem with any of the clues – quite enjoyed the bully boy at 20ac – but I agree that this puzzle has too many references to the demise of cattle.

       Congratulations on your 10th anniversary. I am at 9th November 2007 in my tour of historic Times Cryptics with TftT blogs so I look forward to seeing your first effort over the next week or so.

13. 24 minutes, stuck for a while on ARTWORK and TOREADOR but liked it when saw it at last. However had put in BRASHEST without thinking how or why SHE was inside BRAT not FRET, so a dismal DNF today.
    Another congrats to jackkt. Keep up the good work! Your newer userpic is certainly better.
    Going to torture myself with the last 2 Club Monthly puzzles now in case I solve one and foolishly offer to blog it!
    pip
14. DNF as I biffed ARTIFACT without even parsing it. Another one who couldn’t get TOREADOR, and CHEEPS finished me off as well. All in all an easy crossword which I completely messed up.
15. 6m12, so not nearly as fast as Magoo today, but within the realms of acceptable times I suppose. This was a lot of fun, I hesitate to guess at setters because I’m always wrong but John Halpern (Paul, etc) has a similar sense of humour to some of these clues. Good puzzle whoever it is!
16. I’m in Niagara today without access to the paper, so I won’t be posting for a couple of weeks. I just logged in as I did do yesterday’s puzzle on the plane (WINGDING indeed) and read about your anniversary, Jack. Congratulations and thank you. Now I wonder if this tightrope is long enough?
    1. Got your barrel with you I trust!
17. Another bratty type with “brashest” here but went back for another look. I agree that ABATTOIR is ghoulish although in general I don’t think it a bad thing to remember that meat doesn’t come ready plastic-wrapped in a styrofoam tray.

    Please add my congratulations to the others Jack. I should also say that he was particularly helpful when I started out as a relief blogger. And it should be noted that when there are glitches with these and the QCs he is almost always the first to prod the administrators to get on the case.

    It’s some years ago now so I don’t remember when I discovered tftt – and felt like Keats on “first looking into Chapman’s Homer”!

18. I’m just pleased to have – narrowly – avoided my “Verlaine moment” and decided something wasn’t quite right with BRASHEST. Took a couple of minutes though so 14.45 in the end

    OK (just) with the TOREADOR definition

    Am I the only one that lost time by throwing in TWEETS at 22?

19. Many congratulations Jack. Keep up the good work:-) I crashed and burned with BRASHEST, even though I said to myself “you should’ve had another look at that” as I pressed submit. Bah! I had a lot of interruptions during my solve as my daughter seems to have a hard drive failure on her laptop, on which she had just consolidated all of her photographs, after deleting them from all other sources to make space, and of course she has no other backup. So a bit of distress there! I was held up by TOREADOR, CHEEPS and HYPERION, while having to keep pausing to take messages from said daughter, but got there eventually. I biffed ARTIFACT at 15d, but kept revisiting it until I spotted the hidden. That confirmed the T of TOREADOR for me. I’d got through the rest of the puzzle quite quickly for me, and submitted with the one error at 34:39. I also thought 9a was a bit grisly. Thanks setter and Jack.
    1. If you recover the hard drive please tell your daughter to get all her pictures backed up in the cloud. Laptops can be lost or stolen and I am worried now!
       1. They were in icloud, but my granddaughter deleted them to make room for more:-(
20. On the wavelength today, it seems. I left LOADSTAR till the end, as I only knew LODESTAR, and was wondering if a homophone indicator had been accidentally left out; every day’s a school day here. Speaking of which, happy blogaversary, jack – I suspect I was still a lurker exactly ten years ago, as I was commenting and blogging not long afterwards. I imagine I’m not the only person wondering where the time goes…
21. I made hard work of this at 18:35 but I can’t really see why. Noisette, cheeps and Hyperion delayed me the longest. I didn’t mind the bully boy definition.

    Congrats on the milestone Jack and thanks for all the blogs. Definitely deserving of a hall of fame induction.

22. Hats off to Jack 🙂
    Bit slow just writing answers in today (physically, I mean, owing to ET being a bit worse than usual) so 21 mins.
    Nice blog.
23. This has put me completely off my steak and chips tonight. If we had to visit an abattoir I suspect many would not eat meat again (although gutting trout didn’t put me off fish). Complete in 40 mins and I am now not sure if it is Tuesday or Wednesday. Well done blogger!
24. LOI 20, not the best of clues in my book or maybe it’s because I took too long to see it. About 20. Well done Jack, thanks indeed for the stalwart blogging.
25. Sorry, off the crossword topic but I can’t resist …
    Just had an email from Catherine Newman, director of subs, inviting me to click to complete a 20 minute survey on my likes / dislikes of The Times / ST website; and enter a draw for a £500 JL voucher.
    On all 3 of my connected devices, different browsers, the link goes to “server not found”… or an error 404.
    Says it all, really.
    Anybody else got the link to work?
    pip
    1. I got the same mail and just tried it. Goes to “Page not Found”. As you say, sums it up!
    2. Didn’t get the email – yet.
    3. It worked for me
26. 31:43 which I’d be happy with any day of the week, but especially Tuesday (assuming it is indeed the new Friday).

    I didn’t mind 9a as a clue, given my passion for fillet steak, but spelling it incorrectly held me up at 6d for a few minutes. Incidentally the Hereford in the ABATTOIR could be a porker.

    Thanks for the blog and congratulations on the anniversary – you are indeed “A Greek starter” male! Pretty sure that’s a double def btw 😉

    1. I knew I’d struggle to spell abattoir so I left letter 3 & 4 blank until I got safari
27. Hi Jackt
28. To Jack for the effort over these years. We are all thankful for you, and the other bloggers.
    This was a normal timed solve, but I would have been quicker, due to being held up by HYPERION in the end. Tough to remember all those moons floating about, and all the classical gods and titans. Finally seeing the ‘hyper’ part did it for me. Regards.
29. About an hour and a half elapsed before completion, interrupted by afternoon nap – couldn’t get going really, so have only dropped by to add my best wishes to Jack.
30. Well done from one of the others of the 10-year contingent (it will be my turn next week). I rather liked this one, with a particular smile to “bully boy”. I got in around the 12 minute mark.
31. Really just wanting to add my appreciation to Jackkt.
    An awfully slow time given that the puzzle is fairly gentle, but, in mitigation, I am listening to the radio to keep track of the Champions’ League football. Cheering on Tottenham, as ever.
32. It’s a bit late for any meaningful comment but thanks to all the bloggers and special congratulations to Jack on reaching this milestone. It was a happy day for me when I discovered this site. Biffed ARTIFACT – I should have parsed it properly. It’s a spelling mistake I make often. 32 minutes. Ann
33. 33 mins 42 secs for me, so pretty quick. Slightly held up by entering “old Timon” rather than “old timer” at 1ac (don’t ask) until I saw that 5dn had to be “raining”. Also pondered alternatives to “brashest” until settling on “freshest” at 8dn. LOI 18dn took a while, “Ion-a” was clear at the end but “hyper” for “moving a lot”, less so. I enjoyed this one a lot. I’ll add my congratulations and appreciation for the blogger’s ten year stint.
34. Passing by late (as is too usual these days) to add my thanks to our esteemed blogger. I was inspired and facilitated by your posts when starting out, and am now in debt for your help, advice and encouragement in my more recent role as a contributor.

    Whether explaining chewy clues, patching together last minute blogs, cheerily pointing our errors, or quietly helping things run smoothly round here, your effort is very much appreciated.

35. Late to the party but wanted to add my appreciation to Jack and all of the bloggers for their sterling work over all these years. Oh and the puzzle? 50m but struggled to get the city and the dish for at least 10 of them.
36. Solving time: 37 minutes
    Drink: Krohn coheita 1995

    Congratulations to Jack, and thanks to him and all our bloggers.

    TOREADOR was my LOI after a slow grind through the others.

37. Congratulations on your ten years, Jack, it’s all much appreciated. I think you sell yourself a little bit short – I enjoy doing an extra puzzle every day – now working through 2010 – and when I look back at the blog I would have said you regularly reported an hour, yet nowadays you’re regularly around the half hour.
38. Was terribly easy but a huge hoot. Lets have more easy starters that are terribly witty!
39. Congratulations on the anniversary Jack. Keep on batting. 441 not out will take some beating!
40. 21 mins with one error. Brashest instead of Freshest

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